Before going onstage at the Baile do Regente, in Guarulhos (Grande SP), Matheus Wallace, Don Juan's given name, inhaled In the dressing room.
He claimed to be exhausted. "Lately I've been feeling panic and anxiety. I'm very tired."
On stage, Don Juan sings just a few seconds of a hit. Then he starts another song. But, before finishing, he runs off the stage and leaves, much to the despair of producer Dodô.
Minutes later, Dodô receives a message from DJ Allana, the singer's wife. "Don Juan is at home, sitting on the floor, crying."
Those who follow the funk singer's career, today the most listened to in Brazil, may not imagine that moments of emotional instability happen.
The episode of this show, however, raised an alert for the mental health of funk singers and for the recurring instabilities in the profession, with media scandals, frustrations and depression.
According to social psychologist Tamiris Crystini Motta, who works at the Social Protection Service for Children and Adolescents, psychological treatment is seen as a luxury on the periphery, and funk singers are a mirror of it.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon